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Powderfinger
Powderfinger emerged as one
of Australia's most popular radio-friendly rock bands, part of a generation
of significant Australian rock to come out of Brisbane in the wake of the Bjelke-Peterson "deep north" era when a lot
of youth culture was suppressed. It didn't happen straight away, but when
it did, it produced music the rest of Australia embraced.
Powderfinger grew out of a
three-piece band, taking their name from a Neil Young song in 1990 with the
addition of two members, including singer/guitarist Bernard Fanning. They
cut their musical teeth performing cover versions of classics by Neil
Young, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Steppenwolf and
Rodriguez. In the beginning, the group promoted their own gigs, posted
their own flyers, and then put their earnings into 1,500 copies of a
self-titled EP. The second EP 'Transfusion' was highlighted by 'Reap What
You Sow', a song featuring harmonies and showing off Fanning's soulful
voice - a taste of things to come.
The band
was signed to Polydor Records and their major label
debut album 'Parables for Wooden Ears' followed in August 1994. Produced by Tony Cohen (Nick Cave and
the Bad Seeds, The Cruel Sea) this album emphasised the band's heavier
side. A Top Ten seller in their home state, the album launched Powderfinger nationally, thanks also to a bout of
constant touring.
After a
creative hibernation and two CD EP's, recording
started for the second album, the breakthrough 'Double Allergic', which
revealed a significant shift towards accessible rock songs rooted in
melodic grooves. Powderfinger's reason to be is
to create songs strong enough for the band and audience to play and hear
months or years down the line. The singles 'Pick You Up' and 'DAF' (which
stands for the first three chords of the song) picked up strong airplay
support. The album went straight to the top ten in September 1996, sold
double platinum, spent half a year in the Top 30 and earned the group a
string of ARIA nominations including album of the year.
It meant
that Powderfinger didn't get around to recording
the third album until two years later when they walked into the studio with
30-40 songs and came out five weeks later with 'Internationalist'. This
album entered the charts at Number One, and was still charting a year later
when, this time Powderfinger won its ARIA awards
nominations. Another two years on, September 2000's 'Odyssey No.5' gave
them their second No.1 album in the row, and at the start of the New
Millennium Powderfinger were arguably Australia's
"top" band. Sales in excess of 400,000 confirmed their place on
top.
A flurry
of Powderfinger releases, 'These Days' (live) and
'Fingerprint' (Best of) preceded the November 2005 release of Bernard
Fanning's country rock solo album 'Tea and Sympathy', a national No.1 album
selling four times platinum.
Powderfinger had decided to
take a break and didn't reassemble until February 2006 when they
reassembled to write the songs for a new band album, this time taking a
different approach to the songwriting by initially
writing songs in groups of two or three rather than the entire band to
avoid some band members dominating the process. The other objective was to
get as far away from the 'Tea And Sympathy' songs as possible.
The
resulting songs were taken to Los Angeles, where they were produced by Rob Schnapf, known for his work with Beck's early albums.
The title of the album 'Dream Days At The Hotel Existence' was inspired by
the Paul Aster book 'Brooklyn Follies' Bernard Fanning was reading during
the sessions. In May 2007, on the threshold of the album's release
controversy surrounded one of the songs, 'Black Tears' over its apparent
reference to an aboriginal custody in death on Palm Island in Queensland in
December 2006. A trial relating to that incident was due and it was
suggested the song might prejudice proceedings. Powderfinger
made last-minute changes to the lyric to avoid legal action holding up the
album's release.
In
August 2007 Powerfinger embarked on a nationwide
tour with Silverchair titled the Across the Great
Divide tour, starting in Silverchair's hometown
Newcastle and Powderfinger's Brisbane a couple of
days later. The tour embraced 34 concerts in 26 towns lasted over two
months with an estimated 220,000 people in attendance and aimed to promote
the efforts of Reconciliation Australia, a foundation helping to improve
the welfare of the indigenous Australians. A DVD featuring the Melbourne
concert and a 90 minute documentary was released in December.
The
band’s seventh studio album ‘Golden Rule’ was recorded in Byron Bay over a
six month period. The plan was Powderfinger back
to its essence. They’d experimented with the sound, tried different things
with the songwriting process and recorded in
America with different producers. ‘Golden Rule’ was recorded at home, the
band reunited with American Nick DiDea, who had
has previously worked with the band during the “classic” era, producing
‘Internationalist’, ‘Odyssey Number 5’ and ‘Vulture Street’. They also
wrote the songs as a team, with Bernard responsible for the bulk of the
lyrics. The album was recorded in the same spirit, as close to the live
sound as a studio album could be. ‘Golden Rule’ reached the No.1 spot
nationally, the fifth studio album in a row to reach the top.
On
April 9 2010 Powderfinger announced that they would be disbanding
following the completion of a farewell tour in October. In the
prepared statement, the band advised that “the “Sunsets” tour will be Powderfinger's last ever run of shows. “We have
decided, after much deliberation and agonising, that after this final tour
we will call it a day as a recording and touring band. With the
completion of our last album, ‘Golden Rule’, we feel that we have said all
that we want to say as a musical group. We firmly believe that it is
our most complete and satisfying album and can't think of a better way to
farewell our fans than with music that we all believe in and also with,
hopefully, our best tour to date”. Officially it was a unanimous decision.
Ian Haug argued against the finality of it,
wanting to leave room for a change of mind somewhere down the track.
In
truth the cracks within the band’s solidarity had been there throughout the
writing and recording of both 'Dream Days At The Hotel Existence' and
‘Golden Rule’ – ever since Bernard’s solo album but not necessarily because
of it. Everyone had embarked on non-Powderfinger
projects. Bernard’s was just more public and more successful. Powderfinger were honest at the time and have
reiterated the point - they were conscious of not repeating themselves.
When doubt enters the joy is harder to find. For Bernard there was another
issue. When his wife was in hospital in Spain there was no thought of the
band allowing him to go and be with her.
Powderfinger played their
final show at the river stage at home in Brisbane on the 13 November 2010 , where they wowed the 10,000-strong crowd with
their hits from the last two decades.
-Ed,Nimmervoll
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